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By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the hair straightening process invented in Japan that has swept America and made countless women forever grateful to it’s hair-transforming powers. It goes by several different names - Japanese Straightening, Thermal Reconditioning, Straight Perm, and Japanese Straight Perm. So, what exactly can you expect after a thermal reconditioning service? Well, it’s actually nothing short of miraculous, if you choose the right product and stylist.

I had my treatment done at a Japanese salon in Ohio that specializes in this service. After about six hours of sitting in the salon, being alternately shampooed, heated under intense heat lamps, blown out, flat ironed, and then going through the entire process again, I emerged from the salon with a completely retexturized, smooth and sleek head of hair. All together, the straightening process cost about $750, including a VERY generous tip and a large bottle of shampoo and conditioner specially formulated for my new tresses. The hourly rate for the service was $80, which is actually below most others that charge about $100 an hour. I was under strict instuctions to guard my hair from water or any type of moisture for the next 72 hours.

I was completely thrilled with my new hair. The light reflected off of it like crazy, and it blew naturally in the breeze, not at all dried out or artificial, like you might expect after a chemical treatment. It actually was in the best condition ever, which seemed counterintuitive since it had esentially just been through six hours of chemical and heat treatment. Nevertheless, it was absolutely and undeniably true.

I was told I would need to come back for a touch up on the new growth anywhere from 6 months to a year, depending on how straight I wanted it to stay and the rate of hair growth. It is now six months later, and even though it has more body, it is still shiny and smooth. I actually like it a little more with some body at the roots. It gives it a little extra lift, and the remaining hair is still straight and manageable.

There are some things you want to look out for when searching for a salon that offers thermal reconditioning. First, find out which straightening product they use. The best Japanese Straightening System is Liscio, and the second is Yuko.

Both are made in Japan. Any others are to be cautiously researched. Liscio has produced the best results on clients, and if you’ve read about it anywhere, there is nothing negative to be reported. This is the system the salon I went to used, and my results were healthy and beautiful.

Second, make sure the technician performing the service has plenty of experience in the process. Any good salon will provide you with before and after pictures of their work. Third, be sure to be open and honest with the stylist about any prior haircoloring or processing, so they can adjust the treatment accordingly for the best results. Don’t fall in to the trap of buying expensive shampoos and conditioners like I did (I spent about $85 on shampoo and conditioner). You can actually use several quality, gentle shampoos and intensive conditioners and get the same, if not better, results
( http://www.cosmeticsgalore.com/best-haircare-products-reviews.html ). These are the best products keep hair straight, smooth, and flowing, rather than “stick” like and unmoving.

After Japanese Straightening, you do want to be sure to keep hair protected from the sun and moisturized, so frequent deep conditioning and an SPF spray or other UV protective hair product is highly recommended. You must wait at least one to two months before coloring your hair after the treatment, depending on your stylist’s recommendations. If you can, go to a stylist who was actually trained by a top technician at the corporate headquarters for the system they use. This assures they have been trained correctly and specifically on how to get the best results possible. What this means for you is a lower risk of getting a “botched” straightening job or damaged hair. Do your research. Get online and find the salons in your area that offer the service along with their credentials. After all, you don’t want to waste your hard-earned money on something that is less than a superior result. The cost of the treatment can be very high, especially if your hair is particularly long or hard to “de-curl”. Typically, the longer and curlier the hair, the longer the process takes, and the more you will spend.

Bottom line, if your hair is unruly, frizzy, or overly curly and you would like to have low maintenance, hassle free hair that is shiny and straight, the “Japanese Straight Perm” is just the thing for you. I know I will be going back for a second round!

About the Author: Danna Schneider is the webmaster of the beauty and cosmetic product review and advice website CosmeticsGalore.com http://www.cosmeticsgalore.com . She is a cosmetics and beauty product researcher and enthusiast.

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Throughout the past few years downloading music on the internethas increased in popularity. At the same time though, it hasbecome illegal through many companies to download music asmusicians and artists have been losing money on their CD sales.With many people being sued in the past couple years fordownloading music, is it really possible to download musiclegally anymore? If so, at what price will it cost you todownload music?

As music sites such as Napster and Kazaa and many more haveattempted to create sites to download music for free, they havejust increased the problem that much more. Some of the users ofthese programs have learned the hard way that music does notcome free, as they were sued for illegally downloading music.

Today there are many sites in which you can download music atwhere they claim it is 100% legal. The latest music fileformats used are Windows® Media (WMA), Advanced Acoustic Coding(AAC) and Atrac 3, and are very popular as it increases thesound quality making it closer to an actual CD bought in stores.Another great advantage is that many sites such asSonicSelector Service on MSN allow you to preview the musicbefore buying it. Many sites today also offer a three-day trialof their music downloading site, and then after that you willhave to begin paying a monthly fee. So it is possible todownload music legally online, but at what cost?

Pressplay.com offers unlimited music for a price of $9.95 permonth and then you also have to install the software from theirsite. The downloaded music is non-burnable and once yoursubscription runs out you no longer have access to any of yoursongs. Rhapsody at listen.com also charges $9.95 per month fornon-burnable music, but instead of downloading the music youdownload a music player that gives you access to the songs.

Now you can download music and you know the basic price permonth for non-burnable songs. However, most people downloadmusic so that they can burn their favorite CD with a variety ofsongs.

Transferring these songs onto a CD or a personal MP3player will cost you even more. Many sites offer packages forsongs capable of burning as oppose to a set price per song.

For example, Pressplay offers 5 burnable songs for $5.95, 10burnable songs for $9.95, 20 burnable songs for $18.95, and thenon top of those prices you are still required to pay the monthlyfee to use the program. MusicNet offers a package for $17.95 amonth that comes with unlimited downloading music and 10burnable songs.

There are other sites such as apple.com/itunes that is priced at99 cents to download a song and there is no monthly fee, but youmust own a Mac in order to do this. Sites such as mp3.com,peoplesound.com, and soundclick.com all offer free music todownload and burn. The catch is that these sites offer amajority of unknown artists and songs.

With the exception of the last few sites I have mentioned, youwill find a relatively large selection of music to choose fromin all of these sites. Not one of the sites offers less than300,000 songs to choose from with all of the biggest names inthe music industry such as Eminem, Britney Spears, and evenoldies such as Elvis, The Beatles, and Frank Sinatra.

There are websites out there that are 100% legal for you todownload music at. The question now is how much money are youwilling to pay to download all of the hottest songs today, andare you willing to pay extra to put those songs onto a CD?

About the Author: Jeff Schuman is the creator of Best-MP3-Music-Downloads.comwhere you can buy CD’s and find all of the best free musicdownloads. http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com

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Are you doing what you really want to do or did you just fall or wander into the job you now have. As a friend of ours once said,’ I am one of twenty two doctors in our family. The only ones in our family who are not doctors are the dogs and cats’. Did you decide what you wanted to do or are you one of a growing number whose work was dictated by circumstances or their parents?

The question is not what are you doing and who put you there but; are you happy? If you are not doing what you really want to do then the chances are that you are unhappy and that is affecting your health and relationships as well as other parts of your life.

As John D Rockefeller III stated “The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what interests you and that you can do well, and put your whole soul into it every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.”

The problem is that although we are aware, deep down, of what we want to do the hard part is putting those thoughts into action. Actually doing it. Perhaps you are trapped in the thinking process that says…; “ well I can’t really change”. How will I pay the mortgage? How will I pay the school fees? How will I ……..

Or perhaps your thinking says it is better the devil you know than the one you don’t.

Or are you thinking well I’m lucky really I have a regular job that pays sufficient salary (just about) and others are not as lucky as me?

Whatever your story. Just stop for a moment and ask yourself:

What is really driving me?

What makes me do what I do?

Sarah, a friend of ours, is 57 years of age, single, an only child with no parents alive and no children. In our language, she is the end of the line. A successful sales manager for an international company. But her world has just collapsed. A week before Christmas she was made redundant with little or no warning. She has given her life to the industry she worked in and feels very let down, bitter and disappointed. After all, she had it all worked out. Retirement happens at 60, the mortgage will be paid off, the pension fund will start to pay up and then she will be able to decide what she wants to do in the future.

But that hasn’t happened. She is three years short and needs work. Her initial calls to her vast network of friends and colleagues has resulted in either, sympathy, not returned or I’m sorry but…you understand…we need ur hmph younger people… On the other hand there are those who kept her confidence up by inviting her for an interview only to find on arrival that either there was no job or ur hmmph we found someone younger.

So Sarah was forced to ask herself: ‘Where do I go from here?’

She doesn’t want to retire….she’s too young for that!!! The lack of response from her industry and so called friends and network has forced her to ask herself, ‘What do I really want to do?’
If I can’t continue the habit and stay in the industry, ‘What do I really want to do?’

She started to ask herself;

What really drives me?

What made me do what I did?

What did I love most about the job?

Gradually she had to acknowledge that most of her working life had been driven by fear. Fear of not being able to pay the mortgage.
Fear of getting into debt.
Fear of failing a credit check.
Fear of being a failure.
Fear of having to be on her own.

However, she also realised that what had driven her to stay in her industry all her life was the love she had for putting teams of people together. The love of developing people who felt they couldn’t achieve. The love of being a nanny, nurse, coach, counsellor etc to young and developing sales teams.

The enjoyment she got out of caring for others, steering them, cajoling them. It was almost that over the years her sales teams had become her family and she enjoyed that. What’s more she found that her greatest enjoyment had come from turning around ailing, little known or unsuccessful products.

Now she started to work with a new vigour. Instead of being an old or aged, victim, with little or no hope of getting work. She started to scan the ads and rewrite her CV as a caring, coach, who loved developing and growing sales teams of young people. Someone who could be relied upon to introduce vigour and sparkle to old, tired and little known products.

We don’t have a happy ending to the story yet, but Sarah had three interviews last week and one company has called to see her again as they are interested in what she might have to offer them. We are all keeping our fingers crossed.

And Sarah? She has a new spring in her step. A belief that she has discovered what she really wants to do. She is constantly focussed in the positive. We have no doubt that she will get what she wants.

The moral to the story. The answer is always inside yourself. The answer is in your thoughts. Look deep inside yourself. Ask yourself; What really drives me? What deep down is the reason I’m on the planet. Don’t cheat yourself: stay with the question.. You will know when you find it because your whole body feels: yes I’ve got the right answer. Then: Just accept it, change your thoughts and believe in yourself. And watch life change.

On other hand, as Beth Mende Conny stated, “If you don’t take control of your life, don’t complain when others do.”

Julie and Graham

About the Author: To see more of our work please go to:www.desktop-meditation.com

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Many of the gas saving devices being advertised do not work
and can actually damage your vehicle.

After evaluating and testing more than 100 alleged gas-saving devices, the Environmental Protection Agency hasfound only a few that improve mileage and none that do sosignificantly.

The gas-saving products on the market seem to fall intoclearly defined categories. These include, but are notlimited to: air-bleed devices, vapor-bleed devices, liquidinjection devices, ignition devices, fuel line devices,mixture enhancers, internal engine modification devices,fuels and fuel additives, oils and oil additives, anddriving habit modifiers.

The EPA evaluates or tests products to determine whethertheir use will result in any measurable improvement to fueleconomy. However, the EPA cannot say what effect gas-savingproducts will have on a vehicle over a long period of time.It is possible that some products may harm the car oradversely affect its performance.

For example, if an “air bleed” device actually addssignificant amounts of air to the air-and-fuel mixture, itmay cause an engine to misfire, a condition which greatlyincreases the potential engine damage or mechanical failure.This is especially likely to happen on cars manufacturedbetween 1974 and 1982, because their carburetors are pre-setfor a maximum amount of air to be burned with the fuel.”Air-bleed” devices will not work at all on many carsmanufactured after 1982, because these cars have “feedback”carburetors that automatically adjust the air-and-fuelmixture rendering the device useless.

Many ads feature glowing testimonials by satisfiedcustomers. There are too many variables that affect fuelconsumption, such as traffic, road and weather conditions,the car’s condition and overall maintenance, and the drivinghabits of the owner.

In one case a consumer sent a letter to a company praisingits gas-saving product. But what was not mentioned in theadvertisement was the fact that the consumers vehicle alsohad an engine tune-up at the time the device was installed.

Some advertisers claim that the gas-saving device isapproved by the Federal government.

No government agencyendorses gas-saving products for cars. The seller can onlystate that the item has been tested by the EPA. If theadvertiser claims that the product has been tested by theEPA ask to see the results or contact the EPA directly.

If you have already purchased a gas-saving product and youare not satisfied, contact the manufacturer and ask for arefund. An honest company offers a money-back guarantee.If you are not satisfied with the company’s response,contact your local or state consumer protection agency orthe Better Business Bureau.

Keeping your car in tip top condition is the best way to getthe best gas mileage your vehicle has to offer. Everyvehicle come with an owners manual. Read and follow whatthe manufacturer recommends.

Three simple steps that will help improve gas mileage in allvehicles:

Getting a tune-up.
Checking tire pressure.
Removing any excess weight from the car’s trunk.

For over 20 more tips and one secret hint go tohttp://www.apluswriting.net/gasmiles/gasmiles.htm

About the Author: Marilyn PokorneyFreelance writer of science, nature, animals and theenvironment.Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading.Website: http://www.apluswriting.net

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Don’t take a part time job.

Start a part time business.

You can work from home or anyware that is convenient. All that you need is a computer and an internet connection.

You will have very low start up costs, in fact you can start with virtually nothing and work it up to a business that will provide you with everything that you would ever need.

There are just two important things that you must have.

No1- A goal.

No2- A plan.

If you are not sure as to what you are aiming at, how can you expect to hit it?

The plan is required to enable you to set out the steps needed to keep you aimed in the right direction.

Your business will need a name.

What are you going to call it?

How do you decide upon a name?

The right business name can make the difference between success and disaster.

Your domain name will double up as your business name.

It is the URL that your prospective customers will use to find you.

How do you decide upon a domain name?

When you are surfing the net, you type in a word or phrase that you think will bring up the desired results. The most obvious words are the ones that get the most use. These words are generally known as ‘key-words’.

You need to have some of these key-words as part of your domain name. One little problem. How do you find the best words to use for the type of business you are starting?

There is a company called ‘Overture’ where you can do a search for the most used key-words.

If you can pick out about five of the words from the top fifty that are relevent to your type of business and make up a name that incorporates at least three of them, you will be well on the way to achieving success.

No matter what type of business you are starting, it must have a name that is easy to find. If they don’t know that you are there, they can’t buy from you. It’s as simple as that.

If you are not sure what is it that you want to sell, check with ‘Overture’ for the top words that people are using and look at the top ten to see what are people looking for. It should give you some good ideas to get you started.

The above are the basic things to get right before you even think about building your website. Once you have these things in place, building your website will be a natural progression.

Remember.

Do the first things first. The rest of it will fall into place quite naturally.

Don’t look upon it as a chore. Business can be fun. especially when the money starts rolling in.

Don’t hang arround. Give it a go.

All the best, …Bob…

About the Author: AUTHOR’S PROFILE. Robert makes a very good living from some of the best affiliate programs on the net. This is one of his favourites. If you are interested in boosting your mailing list, Take a look. It’s good. It’s very good. http://www.bz9.com/robjfar

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